It is Japanese custom to address someone(who is in front of you) by name plus an appropriate name-suffix/honorific which is selected based on the relationship between you and that person. However, we Japanese sometimes hesitate to choose a name suffix. Recently, one controversial case was reported.
---
It turned out that a male university professor in his 50s was reprimanded with a half-day salary (10,704yen) cut for his harassing a female student.
What is the harassing behavior? He addressed the female student by XXちゃん, ちゃん was added to her first name. Since his speech, such as XXちゃん、きれいだね, made that student uncomfortable/irritated, she appealed to the university for corrective action.

After several interviews, the University resolved that the professor's speech deserved disciplinary action for the power harassment/ bullying.

--
According to a debate of a radio program, which selects topics for debating every week day, most listeners seemed to disagree with the thought that calling a female student with ちゃん deserves this reprimand.

One of listener, a 20s female said " I prefer ちゃん rather than さん. Also adding ちゃん is much better than dropping a honorific."

A few of them pointed out that the problem was not only the matter of name suffix. I also assumed that this problem was caused by more complicated factors of the relationship between the professor and the student.

Coco-san, thanks for sharing the news. However, it’s hard to judge and comment without knowing the actual situation. It could be due to some personal issue between them. I just feel it was rather absurd and extreme to jump into conclusion that the professor's speech deserved disciplinary action for the power harassment/bullying just saying XXちゃん、きれいだね, and being punished with a half-day salary (10,704yen) cut for his harassing.

If Papa says this to me: “Hi sweetheart, you look beautiful today yo.”, I would never take that as harassment or bully. Everybody loves him for being a little “cheeeekie” sometimes. We don’t need an upright Papa. (Tanuki would agree with me for sure ^^; )

I agree that it seems a little extreme. Of course you can never be too careful when working nowadays. I knew someone (an older 40 something gentleman) who was going to be sued for sexual harassment by his 20 something secratary for saying "That's a cute blouse". An innocent comment made to make the new secretary feel comfortable did just the opposite. People take everything the wrong way nowadays.

under___attack wrote:I agree that it seems a little extreme. Of course you can never be too careful when working nowadays. I knew someone (an older 40 something gentleman) who was going to be sued for sexual harassment by his 20 something secratary for saying "That's a cute blouse". An innocent comment made to make the new secretary feel comfortable did just the opposite. People use every opportunity to ruin someone's reputation to make some easy money.

I don't know how it is in Japan, but American women tend to use sexual harassment as a weapon rather than a defense.
I' am not saying ALL American women do this, but many have made similar allegations over trivial matters.
I tend to agree with other posters here. There is probably more to this story. Either the professor has a history of harassment, or the female student just does not like the professor. Could be retalliation for a poor grade or something.

American women tend to use sexual harassment as a weapon rather than a defense. I' am not saying ALL American women do this, but many have made similar allegations over trivial matters

They're not trivial matters, that's the point. It's easy for you (a white male, I assume) to sit aside and tell women they shouldn't feel offended or threatened by certain things, but try being in their shoes and then maybe you wouldn't say that.

there is no cut and dried definition here. we can never truelly know if one person took an innocent comment and then threaded it down the channels of law suit for easy money or if the person saying what they said meant it in a shady light. the shoe analogy works both ways Chris. unless you have worn both shoes, maybe you wouldn't say anything at all..

it's easy to point finger at white male for anything anymore. being wasp (white anglo saxon protistant) is the biggest damn target to wear anymore. if you really want to see repression, just put the cloak on. and the blouse comment, I have seen it both ways. with the male being sexually aggressive and also with the female being overly offended by a simple comment.

However, I have to agree with prior comments. We (I mean all of us) are too quick to anger, too quick to judgement and too quick to find fault in others. the golden rule used to be "Do unto others what you would have them do unto you." It has become "Do unto others before they do unto you and take them for all they are worth."
It's a moral decline regardless of which side of the fence youstand on.

Oh, and the grass isn't greener on the other side, nor does it taste better. It's just a matter of most people wanting what someone else has and when they get it, they realize it's not enough so they want more.

The thing is, when someone is in a position of power over you, innocuous comments can have a more threatening or pressuring tone than they normally would.

The reason white males get the target is because they (we, I guess) have very little idea of what it's like to be discriminated against. Notice how it's always men that are claiming women misuse sexual harassment allegations? That's not a coincidence.

But I don't know if this is getting into rule-violating politics discussion.

Harassment is a difficult issue. It involves not only what was said, but also how it was said, who said it and to whom, their relationship, location... (basically the entire context, as is a semi-automatic rant commonly heard around these parts)

This given, I'm certain there was a lot more than just a comment such as 「XXちゃん、きれいだね」

A woman called "[first name]-chan" by her professor has every reason to believe she is not being taken as seriously as her male classmates. Now, whether such a complaint was worth docking his pay is up in the air, and this is where it would help to have more information. If this was a first offense, a simple talking to would have sufficed, I think. If this was part of a larger problem, I would expect a much more severe punishment. I mean, seriously, the prof's making at the very least 428,000 yen a month gross (roughly $3,800). I don't think losing 10,000 yen (around $90) is really going to hurt him.